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Fiscal ResponsibilityLibrary Submits FY 2001 Budget

By GAIL FINEBERG

A $21.3 million request to continue the pioneering work of the National
Digital Library Program is part of a fiscal year 2001 Library budget
that Dr. Billington presented to the House Subcommittee on Legislative
Appropriations on Jan. 27.

The Digital Futures Initiative also would give the Library the ability
to capture, store and disseminate important digital materials that
are created online and exist in no other format.

Dr. Billington told the subcommittee the Library has become the "leading
provider of high-quality, free educational material in the revolutionary
new world of the Internet."

Having demonstrated the value of the National Digital Library (NDL)
Program, the Library now wants to begin building systematically "a
new kind of 21st century library for all Americans -- the National
On-line Library," he said.

For FY 2001, Dr. Billington requested a total of $428.1 million in
net appropriations plus authority to spend an additional $33.6 million
in receipts. The net increase requested represents an 11.4 percent
increase from the FY 2000 net appropriation of $384.5 million, plus
authority to spend $33.1 million in receipts. Of the requested $43.7
million increase, $16.6 million is needed to pay for mandatory pay
raises and unavoidable price-level increases. The Library also needs
$27.1 million and 192 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to meet
critical, growing workload increases. Even with these positions, the
Library would have 281 fewer FTEs than in fiscal year 1992.

If approved, the proposed new budget would secure the future of the
Library's digital program; ensure the continuity and quality of core
services through succession planning in the Congressional Research
Service, Library Services and the Law Library; provide for security
of the Library staff and collections; and permanently fund a mass deacidification
program and full operation of the first offsite storage facility in
Fort Meade, Md.

Digital Futures Initiative

Summing up a detailed five-year plan for the Library's proposed Digital
Futures Initiative, Dr. Billington said the proposed $21.3 million
budget includes $7.6 million to collect and store digital content;
$11 million to implement the "critical technology backbone";
and $2.6 million to increase educational outreach and public access.

"I see the National On-line Library becoming the hub of an international
network," Dr. Billington said. The National On-line Library also
would collect important digital documents, which, "born online," exist
only in electronic format, he said.

Also, Digital Futures Initiative funding would enable the Library
to guide the development of national and international standards to
ensure easy access to digital materials and to continue an in-depth
study of digital preservation questions.

The Digital Futures Initiative would build on the achievements of
the five-year National Digital Library Program that Congress approved
in 1996. Congress appropriated $15 million over five years for the
NDL Program, and private foundations, corporations and individuals
gave more than $45 million for the program, which expires this year.

According to NDL Program Director Laura Campbell, the Digital Futures
Initiative budget would support a base of 133 FTEs, enabling the Library
to convert temporary NDL staffers now paid with gift funds to permanent
status.

The NDL Program collected digital versions of historical materials
from more than 70 collections of the Library and 33 other research
institutions and made them available, free of charge, on the Library's American
Memory Web site (www.loc.gov). This pioneering
effort was a "stunning success," Dr. Billington
said, noting that the site won the prestigious Global Information Infrastructure
Award for Education in December.

More Hands to Do the Work

In response to questions about other items in the Library's proposed
budget, Dr. Billington or his senior managers explained that:

$2 million requested for a total 46 additional full-time employees
(FTEs) would enable the Library to accelerate the preparation and
transfer of materials from overcrowded Capitol Hill quarters to
new storage modules to be built at Fort Meade, Md., and to rearrange
the remaining collections on Capitol Hill to better serve readers.

$5 million in the budget of the Architect of the Capitol for the
Library would match funds from a private donor to accelerate preparation
of the National
Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Va., for offsite
preservation and storage of audio-visual materials.

Permanent funding ($2.5 million) would sustain the increased police
staffing approved two years ago, and an increase of $4.5 million
would improve collections security controls, such as bar codes,
by which all items can be tracked through the integrated library
system (ILS) and a baseline item-by-item book inventory against
which to measure loss or theft.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is visiting graduate
schools to ask "the best and brightest in the country ...
to come to work for you," CRS Director Dan Mulhollan told
the panel.

In conclusion, subcommittee chairman Taylor thanked Dr. Billington
and his staff for their presentation, and he praised the Librarian
for "the respect shown you from all over the world... .[for] your
desire to make information available all around the world and for your
character."